style="font-style: italic;">While the numbers and terms may
be intimidating, understanding the basic statistics of World of Tanks
is critical to both your offense in knowing your enemy, and defense in
knowing your tank's strengths and weaknesses.

Those of us that are familiar with
MMOs are no stranger to
staring at items and comparing them to what weve already got.
style=""> In World of Tanks, you dont
have to deal with
a million drops for weapons, but a few of them.But to be honest, choosing between these weapons may be
harder than any
epics youve compared in years!The
statistics dont always tell the whole story when you look at a tank
though, so
before you research, you need to know what youre getting into before
you sink
your hard earned R&D XP.Not every
tank is as strong (or weak!) as it seems.

style="">Hit Points

Okay, perhaps this is the only
statistic that is pretty cut
and dry.Hit Points
determines the
overall defensive strength of your tank when it comes to penetrating
rounds and
splash damage from explosive rounds and artillery.In a game where its possible to strike
without being seen or shot back, Hit Points should not be a factor when
choosing to purchase or not purchase a tankunless its a Maus, which
has an
extra 1000 HP over the other Tier 10 tanks.

style="">Weight Load/Limit

This stat has little to do with the
combat itself, but it
determines what you bring into combat.Often times, a tank will require you to upgrade various
parts of it in
order to use the bigger guns, and that will require an upgrade to your
load
capacity probably.

Just remember the upgraded tracks may
turn slower, which is
critical against some speed demons or playing as some Tank Destroyers
or Heavy
Tanks that have a poor ability to change the angle of their shot as is.

style="">Engine Power

Your horsepower is determined by your
engine, but it does
NOT affect your top speed. Rather, it affects the acceleration to that
top
speed, and your ability to navigate hills and unfriendly terrain.
style=""> Its critical to have the
best engine you can
afford in each tank, because battles are won and lost with mobility in
the
lower tiers, and being able to navigate treacherous terrain faster in a
high
tier Heavy or Medium is important to getting the map control advantage
at the
start of a round.

style="">Traverse Speed and Turret Traverse Speed

One of the most overlooked traits is
Traverse Speed.This
refers to your ability to turn the
tracks of your vehicle.This
affects
your ability to attack flankers in a battle, to drive full tilt through
narrow
cities, and to keep the front of your tank facing your opponent as they
try to
circle you.Once
again, this is
determined by your tracks, and you shouldnt expect it to vary too much
with
new tracks.What
you see on the summary
screen is about how youll end up.

Turret Traverse Speed is exactly the
same thing but for your
gun, and a critical stat for mobile battles.Remember that you can combine your tank rotation with your
Turret
rotation in order to get a shot off on someone that you cant catch
normally.This
might not be possible in
rough terrain or in cover though, so keep an eye on your surroundings
and dont
get outmaneuvered!

style="">Hull and Turret Armor

Listed as Front/Sides/Rear, this is
an important ratio that
will always end up in the front being the strongest, but the weakness
of the
sides and rear can vary greatly.Take
for instance, most high tier USA Heavies.They have the hull armor of a medium tank, but outstanding
turret
armor.German Tanks
have fantastic
frontal armor, but lackluster sides and rear and are vulnerable to
flanking.Russian
Tanks have more
balance, but are slightly weaker on the whole and more vulnerable to a
slugfest.Of
course, these are
generalizations and there are exceptions out there.Its more important to know these values for
your enemy than yourself though.Sometimes you dont want to shoot for the turret or tracks!

style="">Standard Shell Damage, Penetration, and Rate of Fire

Perhaps the most foolish mistake of
all is to assume the
listed damage potential of a new tank is all its capable of.
style=""> The reality is that those
numbers are of the
gun it comes preloaded with, and does not take into account the other
guns that
may be available for purchase.A
lot of
the medium tanks have options for rapid fire, mobile warfare, or
long-barreled
high-damage death cannons for slow sniping combat.Take a look at the tech tree for each tank
before you make your purchase.It
may
not have a gun for your play style, or may actually have much more
potential
for damage than you realize!

style="">Sight and Signal Range

One of these is obvious, and the
other much less so.Sight
Range is determined by your Turret, and
is a basic metric for your ability to spot enemies in the field with
your
eyes.Youd think
that light tanks would
excel at this, but It generally only increases with each tier, and
there are a
plethora of accessories for increasing it should you need more.

Signal Range is a much more cryptic
stat, and is up for
argument as to what it actually does.Technically it affects your communication to allies, and
your ability to
daisy chain information from the front lines to the rear artillery and
destroyers.So its
no use charging
forward if no one is in range for you to call out enemy positions to!

They say that knowledge is power, and
that saying definitely
holds true here.You
dont want to end
up with a tank that underperforms for its tier for your style of play.
style=""> At the same time, multiple
tanks start off
with lackluster basic equipment but can devastate opponents with a few
upgrades
that arent listed when you look at the basic tank.Knowing this, we hope that you make less
mistakes than we did purchasing vehicles early on in World of Tanks!

To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our
World of Tanks
Game Page.